CycleDog: (n) 1. An all-weather bicyclist, often regarded as one very sick puppy with a bad attitude. 2. A ankle-biting poodle with a Mohawk. (l)Canis
familiaris cyclus

Friday, March 17, 2006

The Darwin Maneuver

I’ve written about this before, but now I have a name for it.

Maybe once a week, a motorist will pass me, crossing over the centerline while there’s oncoming traffic. Several times this has resulted in the other motorist dodging off the road to avoid a crash. Once, it was a school bus that ran the other car off the road!

We already have the right hook, the left hook, and the side road pull out, also known as oh-my-god-I-never-saw-him-officer. I believe we should add the Darwin Maneuver to the list.

I’d feel bad if this resulted in a crash, but then again, if someone is so hell-bent on passing a cyclist that he puts his life on the line to do it, he really should have the dignity of a name for his folly.

I write about this because it happened again today. I was riding up a hill toward home on a narrow, two-lane road. The first car passed without incident. But the second one blindly followed the first, only to be ‘surprised’ by a vehicle in the on-coming lane. Fortunately, that guy drove off the road, barely missing a fence. The Darwin-esque motorist drove blithely on.

Is it some hormonal thing that causes this behavior? Is it a momentary brain freeze? I really don’t know. But they’d be doing all of us a favor by removing themselves from the gene pool.

5 Comments:

I really don't want to see anyone get hurt, but then again, I really don't understand the compulsion to pass a cyclist regardless of the traffic conditions. And it does seem like a compulsion. some people simply cannot lift their foot from the accelerator, even for a few seconds.

It's not limited to overtaking cyclists. I saw a motorist last night nearly rear-end the car in front of him at a stop light. The light changed and he accelerated, aparently unaware that a car had stalled in front of him.

It's like there's a psychological imperative to go fast, never slowing, no matter what.

Hey, new to the blogging world here. Just started trying to find out about all the great bike blogs out there.

So stumbled upon yours. Geez, I am from NYC, it is sad to think that nearly no matter where you are, that there is danger everywhere. Even in Portland, OR, while I was there nearly got hit a few times.

Well, just passing this along too, I have a cable access/website show called bikeTV. We do lots of stuff all over the place. If you ever get a chance: http://www.biketv.org/see/clips.htm

The newest is this one on my visit to San Francisco: http://homepage.mac.com/trorb/BikeTV/iMovieTheater132.html

This happens to me all the time on my commute home (there's generally little to no traffic on my commute to work). I just know that, if there should be an accident because one car was too impatient to wait till it was safe/clear to pass, they will try to blame the cyclist (well, officer, the cyclist *made* me pass...). I know I've gotten plenty of angry looks and/or fun finger gestures from the oncoming car. However, I've also gotten about the same number of heads shaken in disbelief...